Atlanta Shooting Suspect Gave Cybersecurity Talk About ‘Fraud in Accounting,’ Accused Victims of Committing Accounting Fraud on LinkedIn

Raissa Kengne, the suspect in a Midtown Atlanta shooting on Monday, accused two of her alleged victims—who were her former managers—of accounting fraud and other securities violations on LinkedIn and in a sprawling, 500-plus-page lawsuit. Kengne also made a lengthy post accusing her victims of crimes on the social network and earlier this month gave a talk at the Geek Week Atlanta security conference called “Fraud in Accounting.” 

"I am presenting 'Fraud in Public Accounting' at Geek Week 2022. Please join me for this event. I look forward to seeing all of you! #accounting #fraud #publicaccounting Raissa Kengne Kengne Corporation," she posted on LinkedIn.

“Ms. Kengne’s presentation will cover Fraud in public accounting,” a description for her talk reads. “There are concrete examples of CPA firms colluding with companies to defraud shareholders. This is because fraud is a human construct. The presentation will cover concrete examples of unethical behavior exhibited by public accounting firms in the US and abroad as well as conditions that gave rise to the fraud.”

The talk is particularly relevant considering its topic aligns very closely to the activity she accused her alleged victims of committing in the lawsuit, which accuses her former employer (an accounting firm) and, specifically, two of the alleged shooting victims (among a total of 29 defendants) of fraud, a smear campaign, lying to investigators, and retaliating against and hacking her after she allegedly reported the activity. It appears Kengne filed the lawsuit against her former managers, then gave the talk at Geek Week Atlanta discussing similar topics shortly after. Then this week she allegedly shot and killed both of the managers and shot and injured a third person.

Motherboard has thus far been unable to get a copy of her talk or to learn exactly what she spoke about in it, but the description of it, which was at a conference sponsored by several high-profile cybersecurity companies and put on by ISACA, one of the largest IT industry lobbying groups in the country, aligns very closely to claims made by Kengne in her lawsuit as well as in LinkedIn posts. It is unclear if the “concrete examples” mentioned in her talk synopsis discuss her former managers. GeekWeek Atlanta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kristen Kessinger, director of communications for ISACA, told Motherboard in an email that “Raissa Kengne was a guest speaker at the Atlanta Chapter event, which is listed on their website. The chapter has shared full details with law enforcement and is unable to provide additional information since this is an ongoing investigation. Our hearts are with the Atlanta community.”

Sign up for Motherboard’s daily newsletter for a regular dose of our original reporting, plus behind-the-scenes content about our biggest stories.

In a LinkedIn post last week, she claimed that she reported “several violations of SEC U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations,” as well as other violations; she says she was retaliated against for reporting those alleged violations. 

In a video Kengne uploaded to LinkedIn, she appears to talk to an Atlanta Police Department officer about what she says is her former employer breaking into her home and safe to “delete evidence” she had. The police officer explains that the police report says there were no signs of forced entry, and that the police cannot update the report to say suspected burglary without that evidence.  

The Atlanta Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On her LinkedIn profile, Kengne spammed other people’s posts with comments about her experience with the cryptocurrency trading platform Gemini. Gemini did not respond to a request for comment.

LinkedIn appears to have not deleted or restricted Kengne’s account; people are now arguing in the comments of her posts about the nature of the shooting. This is different to how Meta often handles the social media accounts of alleged shooters. The company often immediately removes such profiles from public view. At the time of writing, many if not all of Kengne’s posts remain online. LinkedIn did not respond to a request for comment on its policies.

Update: This piece has been updated to include comment from Kristen Kessinger, director of communications for ISACA.